Healthy working joints are of utmost importance in providing functional use of limbs and ultimately independence in an individual's life. The loss of joint functions result is a severe compromise of the ability to feed and care for oneself, and limits one's participation in work, social, and family life. Several injuries, diseases, and neurological disorders causing deformations of a limb or digits of the limb may result in loss of joint functions. These include paralysis (from central or peripheral nerve injuries), swelling, joint stiffness, pain, burns, scarring or broken bones. Such deformations often inhibit muscular, structural, or neurological functions of the limb or the digits of the limb, resulting in an individual's inability in carrying out day-to-day activities. Such individuals, who are recovering from problems affecting the limb, need vigilant, appropriate and effective therapy of the limbs, to improve the outcome of the healing process significantly and the restoration of joint functions. Therefore, in order to recuperate the probability of mobility in a deformed limb including loss of joint range of motion, physicians often advise practicing Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) techniques.
CPM is a form of therapy commonly prescribed for assisting the optimal healing of joints and connective tissue following damage and pathology. CPM therapy is often prescribed and used for rehabilitating larger joints such as, the knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow and hip to achieve positive results. It is easier to administer CPM therapy to singular, large joints that can be isolated. However, for rehabilitating small multiple joints of the hand, although CPM therapy has been proven beneficial, the therapy is seldom prescribed or used. Typically, CPM devices allow manipulation of the digits.
However, effective control over phalanx sections of the digits, ensuring safe and consistent delivery of controlled manipulation and forces to multiple joints at the same time, is essential in order to achieve good results with CPM. Further, an individual requiring rehabilitation of limbs requires ease of attachment of CPM devices to fingers, address each joints individually, and the ability of sensing digit flexibility. Hence, the therapeutic device for manipulating the digits of the limb needs a safety feature for preventing over delivery of forces to the digits of the limb, thereby averting rupture of a digit.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus to manipulate joints of a limb of a patient in a more controlled, safe and effective manner. There is also a need for the apparatus to enable independent manipulation of each limb segment.
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